People on legacy benefits can watch court livestream of appeal over backdated £1,500 Universal Credit payments

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Legacy benefit claimants across the UK who missed out on the £20 weekly uplift paid to millions of people on Universal Credit during the coronavirus pandemic will be able to watch a livestream of the appeal hearing from the Court of Appeal today, Wednesday December 7.

The challenge will be streamed live on the Court of Appeal Civil Division’s official YouTube channel for Court 75 here. No specific time for the appeal hearing has been given yet, but judges sit between 10.30am and 4.30pm - once we know the precise time we will update this article.

A summary of the proceedings on the Judiciary website states: “Facts: the appeal arises out of a judicial review of the Respondent’s failure as part of the Government’s pandemic response to increase the Personal Allowance of Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance (known as ‘legacy benefits’) in line with the increase made to the Standard Allowance for Universal Credit (UC).” It continues: “It is the Appellants’ case that the difference in treatment between those in receipt of UC and those in receipt of legacy benefits is incompatible with Article 14 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) as it was unjustified and disproportionate, particularly as disabled people were disproportionately affected by the difference in treatment.”The right to appeal the ruling could now result in the four claimants involved in the case being awarded more than £1,500 in backdated payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - and set a precedent for everyone who missed out on the uplift.While there is no guarantee a ruling in the claimants’ favour would result in backdated payments for every person across the UK also on